Hide and Seek
by Bohemian Bostonian
Summary: Ok, so I got dared to write this a while ago, and I finally did! Weee! Hmm, so Albus is gone and Minerva misses him, and it's an ADMM fic, and its MAJORLY fluffy, and is rated just to be safe, bc of a bit of IMPLIED lemony-type stuff. R&R, thanks!


A/N: Ok so Cielita dared me to write this like, seriously almost two months ago but I just didn't have time! Then I started something but never really finished because I decided it sucked, but now I have a random Sunday with nothing to do, so here we go! A missing scene from Book Five, hope you guys like it! Tell me what you think, would you? Reviews fuel my crazy weekdays (and boy are they crazy!!) Thanks, you're all so awesome!!!!  
  
Disclaimer: None of this is mine; it's all that British Wonder-Woman JKR's!!! So don't give me credit for anything! Review though; I'd really like that.  
  
Now, without further ado, I present: Hide and Seek. Enjoy! *Bows*  
  
Minerva McGonagall lay on her bed, sleeping fitfully. It had been almost a month since Albus had left the school. Since he had left her to deal with things. Of course, he didn't want to go, but he was still gone all the same. They had never once in their twenty-odd years of marriage been separated more than a few days. He had written to her a few off times, telling her how much he loved and missed her and how he knew he could count on her, and he couldn't wait until he would see her again, but for the most part they hadn't spoken since he had left the castle.  
  
She woke suddenly, sitting straight up and breathing hard. Another nightmare where Voldemort had won. Cold sweat covered her face and her heart was beating hard as she climbed slowly out of bed, wiggling her feet into his much-too-big slippers and wrapping his much-too-big bathrobe around the much-too-big sleeping shirt of his she wore to bed every night. She loved his robe because even though she wore it every night at one point or another, it still smelled like him. The shirt had smelled like him-of lemon drops with the lightest touch of parchment-for a little while after she began sleeping in it, but had long since lost that smell and gained the scent of her perfume.  
  
She knew she missed him too much to sleep again. A short sob escaped her, but she wouldn't let herself cry again. Not yet, anyway. Glancing at the clock, she realized that it was only two-thirty, and she need not be awake for about four more hours. Shrugging, for there was nothing that would make her sleep again tonight, she headed toward the bathroom to take a long bath.  
  
Twenty minutes later she sank down into the deep pool-sized marble tub, her hair pinned up off of her shoulders, bubbles surrounding her and a good book and glass of red wine sitting on the side next to her. A quick waterproof charm muttered onto the book, and she was off into her old little world, away from the worry about her husband, the responsibility for her students, the bitterness toward Dolores Umbridge, and all of Hogwarts in general. She read a few chapters, which took her about half an hour, until she heard a sudden shuffling in the large sitting room where the entrance of her and Albus' rooms were. They shared a set of rooms which served as their own sort of home inside of Hogwarts, including a large study, a dining room where they could take dinner in the summer before the children arrived back, and a small, personal library that held their collection of books. Her cat senses picked up a soft click of a door shutting and footsteps slowly approaching the door to the bathroom... and passing right by it. The candles that lit the room did not give enough light to make obvious a presence in the room through the cracks in the door, but flooded the room in just enough light to read off of. A few moments later, the footsteps returned to the sitting room, and after a muttered spell, Minerva could see from under the door the glow of a fire being lit in the large fireplace.  
  
Draining the last of her wine, she quickly stood up, grabbed a towel, and in the process, lost her footing and caught herself right before tumbling forward onto the tiled floor. After a moment of shock, she wrapped a towel around herself tightly, let down her long and now damp ebony hair, and grabbed her wand. Slowly approaching the door, she heard more shuffling and approaching footsteps toward the bathroom door: she had been discovered. Muttering a quick locking charm, she backed into the corner, hidden from view if someone were to walk through the door. She knew this because they had many times played hide-and-seek on dull summer nights when it was too hot to sleep. The child in him forced out the child in her, and she hid there all the time. He would walk into the bathroom, glance around, and walk back out again, purposely not exploring for her, and a few minutes later would sneak in through the door that adjoined their bedroom to the master bath and pounce on her from behind. She shivered. Thinking of him made her miss him even more, and now that some intruder was in their bedchambers, she was honestly quite frightened, although she would never admit it to anyone. The doorknob jiggled a bit, getting fiercer and fiercer as the intruder was unsuccessful in opening it.  
  
Her mind was reeling; who could it possibly be? A staff member? No, they would have knocked, and she hadn't heard it, they would have entered but called for her, not walked around her rooms and lit a fireplace without knowing they were welcomed. A death eater? Possibly. What would be better to Lord Voldemort than killing the woman his greatest enemy cared the most about? The doorknob suddenly twisted completely: the person on the other side broke through the charm. She huddled into a tighter ball, willing herself not to whimper out loud.  
  
'Minerva!' he inner voice chastised loudly, 'what are you doing? You're a Gryffindor, don't be a chicken! Stand up and see who it is, then kick their ass!'  
  
With a new determination, she poised her wand in front of her and leapt out of her hiding spot, and almost cursed into the next week... Albus.  
  
She screamed, then froze, dropped her wand, and her legs began to give. Of all the people she was expecting in her rooms, this was absolutely not one of them. He was by her side as quick as a flash, and slowly sat her down on the edge of the tub. Silent tears ran down her face and it took her several moments to get over the shock of things before she could speak.  
  
"Hi."  
  
"Hi," he replied, laughing. "I didn't mean to scare you, and what on earth are you doing up at three o'clock in the morning?"  
  
She blinked a few times, tears still running freely down her face. He gently wiped them away with his thumb as she began to speak.  
  
"I... I had a dream, and... and I couldn't.... couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to... to relax in the tub, and... and then I heard...." she faltered, her voice cracking, and she threw herself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. A few minutes later she composed herself to realize fully what this was. So, she slapped his arm... hard.  
  
"OW!" he cried. "What was that for?"  
  
"Two things," she replied. "One, for scaring me to death and almost giving me a heart attack, and two, for coming here to see me and risking being caught!"  
  
"Min, you didn't honestly expect me to stay away from you this night, did you?"  
  
"Why not? What's so special about today?"  
  
"Dearest, it's the twenty-fourth."  
  
Her eyes grew wide and she threw herself onto him again, this time not making a noise at all, just holding him close. How could she have forgotten their own anniversary?  
  
"It must have just been the stress," he said softly. She could hear the pain in his voice, and it killed her inside.  
  
"Darling, no, it's not like that at all. It hurt me terribly to think about you, and it would have killed me even more to have realized what the day really was. Are you angry with me?"  
  
He held her at shoulder-length apart from him and looked at her intently for a moment. Suddenly smiling, he whispered, "Of course not."  
  
She released a breath she didn't even recognize she was holding and kissed him. Kissed him with a passion she didn't even realize she had. Kissed him like she had the first time they had kissed. Kissed him with all the pain and loneliness that she had been hiding within her for weeks. And he kissed her back, with the same passion, the same force that she gave to him.  
  
Then, without warning, they both leaned backward simultaneously... and tumbled into the bathtub. Surfacing, Minerva laughed hysterically-the first laugh she let pass from her mouth since he had gone-and moved over to him. In the process of the tumble into the water, she had lost the towel around her, which wasn't too much of a problem, for obvious reasons, of course, and the fact that the bubbles of the bath were still about four inches high. He came up for air a few feet away from her and she laughed even harder at the sight: her husband, the great Albus Dumbledore, looking disgruntled and completely soaked to the bone, with a crown of suds on the top of his head. His wizard's hat floated nearby, barely visible in the forest of bubbles, and his glasses lay somewhere at the bottom of the vast tub, temporarily lost.  
  
"What are you laughing at," he snapped, but she could see in his eyes that he found this as hilarious as she did.  
  
"Why, absolutely nothing, dove, nothing at all." She grinned. He smiled back at her sarcastically and began to move to the stairs that allowed one an exit from the bath.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked seductively, swimming her way to him. "You know, you look very cute in drenching robes."  
  
"I bet I do," he replied tartly. She pouted her lips and looked at him with the green eyes he could never resist.  
  
"You're not leaving again, are you?"  
  
"Of course not," he replied, splashing back down next to her. She splashed back at him, and in a few moments they had a fierce contest going on, which was soaking the surrounding room more than the two of them.  
  
She finally took a deep breath and went under the water, and he stopped for a moment. Spinning himself around and not seeing her, he began to panic a bit, until she surfaced right in front of him and squirted water into his face.  
  
Laughing, she began to make her escape, but he was quicker, and grabbed her wrist, smiling and saying gruffly, "Come here, you!"  
  
At some point during the night, they moved from the water, which had long since grown freezing cold, and both leaned against the side of the massive tub. And there they sat, against the side of a bathtub filled with cold soapy water. Two people in love so deeply that they couldn't see the surface at all. He kissed her again, with the same ferocity they had been sharing all night long, and she gasped against his mouth as he laid her down slowly.  
  
She broke away from him suddenly, gasping for air, and left the room, smiling at him mischievously all the while.  
  
"What are you doing, love?" he asked her when he followed her out into the sitting room.  
  
"Counting to twenty, of course. You best go and hide, or I'll be able to find you pretty easily."  
  
He grinned, turned, and headed out of the room, intent on finding an easy hiding spot so he could get caught faster. 


End file.
